Science education in Israel is on the brink of collapse, the president of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology warned on Tuesday.

Over the last 10 years, Prof. Peretz Lavie said there has been a clear decline in the knowledge level of students accepted to the Technion, especially in basic subjects like math, physics and chemistry. In addition, students are entering with very poor writing skills.

To be accepted to the Technion, students must score above a certain level on both the bagrut (matriculation) exams and the psychometric exam. But today, students who meet these requirements "aren't ready for university studies," he said.

Lavie's cri de coeur comes a week after the Program for International Student Assessment published the results of its latest exam, in which Israeli students ranked 41st out of 64 countries on both the math and the science tests. Equally troubling to Lavie, however, has been the multiyear decline in the number of students who even take the bagrut in scientific subjects.

"Eighty percent of the high-school students who take the bagrut didn't study physics or other sciences at all," he noted.

"Who would have believed that Israeli students would rank after Dubai and Croatia on a [PISA] exam in science and the education minister would be proud of this achievement, since we rose three places compared to the previous exam?" he added. "Science education is an existential issue for the State of Israel, and we're hiding our heads under the carpet."

Lavie attributed the decline in the number of students studying science to the fact that teens were "fleeing to marginal subjects," which are generally easier. The number of electives in which the bagrut can be taken has risen sharply over the years.

What is particularly absurd, Lavie added, is that students can now take the bagrut in fields like environmental science, "which requires a deep knowledge of physics and chemistry, without studying those subjects at all."

On the last PISA exam, Israeli students scored an average of 447 points in math and 455 in science, whereas the international averages in those fields were 496 and 501, respectively.

Moreover, in both fields, the percentage of Israeli students who excelled was about half the international average, whereas the percentage who demonstrated the lowest level of knowledge far exceeded the international average.

"Even if there is seemingly no connection between the Carmel fire disaster and Israeli students' scores on the international PISA exam, both events reflect a similar reality, which stems from many years of neglect and Israel's warped order of priorities," Lavie said.

"Regrettably, the PISA exam results show that there is no high-level science education in our education system. We must not avert our eyes and refrain from trying to improve high-school education."

All the universities have seen a decline in the number of applicants who want to study science, Lavie continued, but "even worse [is] the huge decline in applicants' level of scientific knowledge."

"We invest enormous resources in the first year to fill in the students' [knowledge] gaps, at the expense of moving them ahead," he added. "Over the last decade, this problem has steadily worsened."

Last week, Haaretz reported that 42 percent of high-school math teachers with a college degree never studied math or any related field in college. Moreover, 6 percent of high-school math teachers have no college degree at all. And according to Education Ministry officials, some of these teachers must nevertheless prepare students to take the math bagrut.

A few days later, Haaretz reported that 30 university math professors had signed a letter denouncing the new junior high math curriculum as "scandalously bad" and urging that it be replaced with "a saner curriculum."

The Education Ministry responded that it has worked hard for the last two years to improve math and science education in the schools, inter alia by adding classroom hours, giving teachers extra training and modernizing curricula. It has also striven to encourage outstanding students to study these fields, it said.

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As a student of the social sciences that has always appreciated my hard
science counterparts for doing the work I'm happy to avoid, it is deeply
troubling to know that a critical mass of Israelis are taking the easy
route. I yearn for the day that Israeli media has good news that's fit
to print.

Don't get me started. Both my parents are maths teachers AND
mathematicians. Is their talent used in Israeli schools? The heck it is.
The establishment is not interested in TEACHING the youngsters only in
ticking the boxes. The state of schools in this country is appalling.
Over 30 pupils per class, no discipline, HDAD an excuse for lack of
basic learning skills and the innumerable courses (which are a joke) for
"improving" the qualifications of teachers. I'm glad I got my
education somewhere else.

Kol hakavod le Prof. Peretz Lavie. He has hit the nail on the head. For
me, the core of Jewish identity is excellence in science and
engineering, and care for children in this regard. It is clear that the
state is failing on many fronts. Prof. Peretz Lavie is right that there
is a connection between the fire on Carmel and other failings. Prof.
Lavie can be part of the solution. Solution is an immediate mobilization
of presidents of universities and Shimon Peres, Bibi Netanyahu and
leaders of all Jewish political parties and Jewish diaspora to reform in
one year primary and high school education to match avotenu Albert
Einstein, Niels Bohr, Haim Weitzman ...

This issue is another face of a national leak. From Carmel tragedy, to
Ben Gurion Airport flight security, to Education. But also banks, public
offices. When we compare contemporary Israel to Europe or States we feel
a gap which was not felt 15-20 years ago. It is not politically correct
to say, but try to guess what macroevents changed the culture of the
State of Israel in the last 20 years...

I LOVE it how the LEFT always self-annoints itself as the champions of
Science. between their Socialism and their irrationational Messianic
drive for "Peace" with populations that obviously want us
quite dead, the Left is MUCH less advanced, MUCH less scientific, and
MUCH less enlightened than they LOVE to give themselves credit for

This will be our end. My kids had only 5 hours of school daily and
every other day the teachers were stiking, or there was a holiday, or
the teachers were off on their day off before the holiday or the day off
after the holiday. At the age of 12 they had to decide what general
direction to take and got no exposure to anything else, no music, no
art. No science if they chose English, no Arabic if they chose science,
and so on. The money that could go to our kid's education winds up
funding fringe groups who the government needs to keep the coalition.
Change the election system and pour the money saved into education.

The Jewish brains we are all so proud of, are a result of exercising the
brain. For generations we studied the Talmud and honed our mental
abilities. For the lat few generations, we spend too much time on
brainless activities like watching TV. The mental sharpness is getting
lost. This need positive action. Free education right through to post
graduate studies. Sharpening the brain with Talmud study. Stopping the
brain drain. Educated Israelis are leaving the country as soon as they
can, because the pay for educated people is too low.

As compensation, the least successful Diaspora Jewish professionals are
most likely to make aliyah. To make up for this dumbing down of Israel,
bonus payments can be paid to attract well qualified professionals from
overseas. Oh, that is already being done. No wonder Israel has gotten
itself into a progressively worse mess over the years.

What are you talking about? Plenty of successful professional Jews made
aliyah from former USSR. Only here all they could find was the unskilled
labor jobs. Sounds like you don't live here. The dumbing down here
doesn't come from immigrants - on the contrary in many cases. The
decline in educational standards comes from the very top - obsessed with
PC policies and leftist tendencies. This kind of decline doesn't happen
overnight. It's years of neglect.

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